Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/347

AND JAMES N1SBET. 307 defending his ship in the Bay of Bengal, and was thus celebrated in the Gentleman's Magazine : " His manly virtue mark'd the generous source, And naval toil confirm'd the naval force ; In fortune's adverse trial undismay'd, A seaman's zeal and courage he display'd ; For honour firmly stood, at honour's post, And gain'd new glory when his life he lost !" A fourth son John, a printer in St. John's Square, had died previously in 1785. The first important event in the new publishing house was the establishment of the British Critic, in which Nares and Beloe were conjoint partners with Francis and Charles Rivington. The British Critic was started in January, 1793, in monthly numbers of two shillings each, and by the end of the century attained a circulation of 3500. The editorship was entrusted to Nares, and with the assistance of Beloe it was conducted down to the forty-second volume in 1813. William Beloe was some time librarian of the British Museum, but a stranger who had been ad- mitted to the print-room, having abused his confidence, and stolen some of the pictures, the librarian was somewhat unjustly asked to resign. Among the other contributors to the British Critic were Dr. Parr of whom Christopher North says, not unfairly, " in his character of a wit and an author one of the most genuine feather-beds of humbug that ever filled up a corner of the world " and Whittaker, author of the "History of Manchester." In 1813, the second series of the Critic was commenced, under the editorship of the Rev. W. R. Lyall, afterwards Dean of Canter- bury ; in 1825 the publication was made quarterly,